Nuclear waste in Senate race

Nuclear waste, and where to store it, once helped unseat a Republican senator in Washington, but has been picked up by Republican hopeful Dino Rossi to dump on incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.

Murray has kept a fairly low profile, as other Washington lawmakers have gone to court and the court of public opinion to stop the Obama administration for abandoning plans to store nuclear waste in Nevada.

“Patty Murray has not used all of her powers as a Washington state senator or a senior member of the Democratic leadership to prevent the administration from undermining the law which designated Yucca Mountain as a national nuclear waste repository,” Rossi said Wednesday.

“Any delay means that nuclear waste at Hanford destined for Yucca Mountain, stays in Washington longer, and that is unacceptable.

The Murray camp was quick to take exception, citing a hearing exchange in March where Murray did take Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to task over the decision to abandon Nevada. “She has been pressing the administration on this,” said Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass.

Glass pointed out that Murray helped secure more than $2 billion in federal Stimulus money to speed up the long-lagging construction of a plant to turn Hanford radioactive waste into glass.

Washington is a supporting actor in the three-decade-old debate over where to permanently store “spent” but highly radioactive fuel rods from the nation’s nuclear power plants.

The U.S. Department of Energy studied the 560-square mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington, but picked Yucca Mountain — in Nevada northwest of Las Vegas — for a national waste repository. Yucca Mountain would take radioactive waste from Hanford and other sites around the country.

Nevada seemed powerless to stop the DOE, back in days when ineffectual GOP Sen. Chic Hecht had Washington, D.C., laughing with talk of not letting his state become a “nuclear suppository.”

But that was before Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, became Senate majority leader. Reid has fought to take federal dollars away from studies at Yucca Mountain, and persuaded the Obama administration to pull the plug.

Not so fast, an independent federal panel said on Tuesday.

The three administrative judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board denied the Department of Energy’s motion to withdraw the license application of the Nevada site, saying no evidence has been presented that the application is flawed or the site unsafe.

Officials from Washington, Idaho and South Carolina officials — states which house major concentrations of nuclear waste — applauded the decision. It now goes on appeal to the parent Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“It would be a mistake, at this late stage, to abandon Yucca Mountain as the national nuclear repository,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire. “Here in our state, the federal government’s construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, which began in 2001, is nearly halfway done.

“The $12.3 billion plant, which is expected to be completed in 2019, was designed to meet specific standards of the Yucca facility.”

Gregoire has been outspoken about Yucca Mountain. So has Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Keeping Yucca Mountain has even created a political odd couple in U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who fought each other in two 1990’s House races.

Murray was heard from on Tuesday, applauding the licensing board.

“Over the last 30 years, Congress, independent studies and previous administrations have all pointed to, voted for and funded Yucca Mountain as the nation’s best option for a nuclear repository,” Murray said in a brief statement. “And in concert with those decisions, billions of dollars and countless work hours have been spent at Hanford and nuclear waste sites across the country in an effort to treat and package nuclear waste that will be sent here.”

A bipartisan team of four Washington House members have cosponsored a resolution opposing administration attempts to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain. Murray has sponsored no similar resolution in the Senate.

Politics may have reared its head and caused Murray to keep her head down.

Murray serves with Reid in the Senate’s Democratic leadership.

The Senate majority leader is hitting hard at the nuclear waste issue, since Reid’s challenger Sharron Angle is one of the few Nevada politicians to support storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Rossi showed a deft touch talking about Murray’s difficult position.

“Patty Murray needs to stop talking about standing up for Washington, and actually stand up to her fellow leaders who are derailing this project which is important to our state,” he said.

Is nuclear waste a salient issue? Just ask former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton.

Gorton saw his 1986 re-election campaign literally derailed.

Internal documents detailed how the Dept. of Energy was ignoring its own scientists and going all-out to put a nuclear repository at Hanford. In one study, an expert used unscientific language to describe the Hanford site: “It sucks.”

The Democrats’ challenger, Brock Adams, ran a TV spot showing a train carrying out-of-state nuclear waste into Washington. Gorton was faulted for not using his clout with the Reagan administration to block the nuclear dump.